Hate the Game – Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work

The first 30 attendees received a free copy of Hate the Game at the event. 

The event explored how everyday life anxieties—whether to buy or rent, ask for a promotion, share a pregnancy, negotiate salary, or quit a job—were often rooted in economics. It argued that in an increasingly win-lose society, decisions about where to work, live, and how to build a life could feel predetermined, with mistakes seeming permanent.

Daryl Fairweather brought both personal and professional insight to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to earn an economics PhD from the University of Chicago, she had witnessed how behavioral economics and game theory played out in the real world and in her own life. Drawing on her book Hate the Game, she paired rigorous economic knowledge with a clear, relatable voice that recognized the emotional weight that often accompanies economic choices.

In discussing Hate the Game, Fairweather focused on the earliest economic turning points of adult life: deciding about college and its length, choosing whether and how to partner or have children, navigating job changes and career stability, and figuring out where to live and how to afford it. Through practical examples grounded in her experiences and informed by history, science, and pop culture, she showed how readers could use game theory and behavioral science to map their options, make clearer decisions, and regain a sense of control and agency in an economy where those feelings could be hard to come by.

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